“This is my farm,” the small boy had introduced, which had actually taken Sourai by surprise.
He never would have thought that anyone that young would be working a farm alone. He had thought to ask if the boy’s parents were around to ask them a few questions, or if they were even helping him with the farm at all, but then decided against it. With how he was living out here, he probably had lost his parents, and asking about it would only bring up bad memories. Besides, ask about it or not, it didn’t change the fact that they weren’t here, and it wasn’t something for Sourai to focus on.
“There is no yellow monster,” he had said after looking around for a bit, probably to confirm that there really wasn’t a yellow monster lurking nearby. “The farmers were just making fun of me cause you can only see my hair. They must be laughing about it really hard.”
Well damn. That threw a wrench into his plans. If there was no yellow monster to hunt, there would be no yellow monster to bring back. And, if there would be no yellow monster to bring back, there would be no way to convince them that he had managed to get rid of the yellow monster, which meant that his C-rank mission would be completely annulled. There would be no C-rank to complete, and if there was no C-rank mission to complete, there would be no C-rank mission reward to get and… Damnit!
That bastard Jonin-sensei of his… No wonder he had been so ready to give Sourai this mission to take solo! It wasn’t to train him up; it was just because that damned guy was too lazy to do it himself and needed someone to help him debunk the rumours that he already knew the truth to!
In retrospect, though, Sourai would never have believed the man if he had told him that the yellow monster that the entire village had been going on about was just a small blonde farmer whose height didn’t even breach the rice paddies’. Worse still, these rumours had been spread by other farmers, probably just a bunch of old geezers who were trying to make fun of a young boy trying to encroach on their profession, either for the very fun of it or out of fear for their own business. Either way, Sourai wasn’t impressed, but he would do his job and debunk these rumours anyway.
He just hoped that debunking them and putting the village at ease would earn him a small fraction of the ryo. Even a small miniscule fraction would be enough! That was all he would ask for!
“So you’re not really here to help me,” the boy then said.
Sourai found himself between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, he had a mission to complete, and given that he had technically discovered the truth to the rumours and was able to confirm that there was indeed no monster, he was required by Kumogakure’s policy to report back to the administration building as soon as he could to collect his reward (at least he hoped there would be a reward this time) and put the people’s minds to ease. However, on the other hand, this boy was also a native to the Land of Lightning (well, once again, he hoped so) and he was possibly also from the Village Hidden in the Clouds, just like himself, so he would be going against his very nature to avoid helping this boy. Heck, this was a boy! What kind of a person would he be if he ignored someone who was in need of help like this boy?! Why, that would make him almost as bad as the farmers!
Sourai sighed and bent down to the farmer’s level. “Hey, what’s your name?” he would ask. After getting his name, he would say, “Well then, I need to return to the village to debunk all these yellow monster rumours. It’s a duty of the ninja of the Cloud, after all. And after that, I’ll come back and help you with your crops. And I might even bring some friends along, now that they know there’s no yellow monster to be afraid of!”
After this, Sourai turned away from the farm, returning to his village, with every intent on fulfilling the words that he had promised the young farmer. He would return here with some help the next day, and he knew the farmer could count on it just as much as he could.
Of course, a small part of him was planning to pay his sensei a little visit as well. That damned man had known all this while that there was indeed no yellow monster for Sourai to fight. That man had played Sourai like a fiddle and gotten him all excited for a fight for nothing, and that man was probably sitting back in his home right now smoking a pipe and feeling smug about himself.
Well then, Sourai would see who would have the last laugh, when he would draft his lazy ass bum of a sensei who only knew how to drag him back to the higher ups every time he performed a 'misdeed' as one of the few people he would be bringing back to helping the young farmer with his farm.
And he knew that this one he could most definitely count on happening.
[Exit thread]
OOC: Sorry for the late reply. I actually forgot about Saga for awhile. My bad.
Words: 935 + 1111 = 2046
Training everything from E-0 to E-2: 225 x 5 = 1125
Training everything but Strength from E-2 to E-3: 225 x 4 = 900
That leaves 21 words unused and discarded.